A journalist who speaks truth to power, not a megaphone, not a stenographer. That, hopefully, would be the identity a conscientious journalist would seek; such has not been the case with the US press corps for ever so long. (The Iraq War is the prime exhibit in this brief, but many others can be foundContinue reading “Bury My Journalism At Bended Knee: The Press And Donald Trump”
Tag Archives: Donald Trump
Dostoyevsky on Donald Trump And The 2016 Elections
Yesterday, I spent part of a gloomy, overcast day in the CUNY Graduate Center library, preparing for my classes today. In particular, I prepared for my class on existentialism by reading, yet again, Dostoyevsky‘s Notes From Underground. As I read sitting next to a large window, I heard chants emanating upward from Fifth Avenue; IContinue reading “Dostoyevsky on Donald Trump And The 2016 Elections”
Stopping The ‘Muslim Registry’: A Serious Approach
A symbolic act of resistance is being proposed to the Trump administration’s proposed registry for Muslim immigrants to the US: right-minded folks should register as Muslims too. This is an essentially well-meaning gesture of solidarity but it is useless. It will accomplish nothing; it will not prevent the registration of Muslims; and worse, it willContinue reading “Stopping The ‘Muslim Registry’: A Serious Approach”
Conversations (Brief Ones) With Richard Spencer, Neo-Nazi
A few years ago, while working out at my gym in Brooklyn, I was paired with a young man named Richard Spencer for a ‘partner workout’ (I learned his first name during our pre-class introductions; the rest followed once we began our workout.) We took turns performing the assigned exercises at intervals, encouraging the otherContinue reading “Conversations (Brief Ones) With Richard Spencer, Neo-Nazi”
Thanks Joan Williams, But I ‘Get The US Working Class’ Just Fine
You know the refrain by now: cease and desist from calling Trump ‘fans’ or ‘voters’ ‘stupid racists.’ We must not think of them as ‘ignorant’ They are, instead, ‘economically disempowered’; they constitute a distinct cultural class, one which must now be listened to and studied with all due care and respect; we must understand andContinue reading “Thanks Joan Williams, But I ‘Get The US Working Class’ Just Fine”
Demonizing Organized Labor And The Road To Fascism
The word ‘union’ occurs five times in Jedediah Purdy‘s Jacobin essay ‘How Trump Won.’ On the first two occasions, Purdy invokes unions as part of an analysis of the demographics of Trump voters: [U]nion voters abandoned the Democrats dramatically Clinton was much weaker than Obama with union-household voters: he won them 58–40, she only 51–43.Continue reading “Demonizing Organized Labor And The Road To Fascism”
The 2010 Midterms And The 2016 Presidentials: The Lessons Not Learned
In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama won 365 electoral college votes. He pulled this political feat off thanks to the Obama Coalition–a motley crew of Democratic faithful, independents, fired up progressives, disillusioned Republicans. Obama talked a good talk on the campaign trail; he spoke of moving on from the Bush legacy; he spoke ofContinue reading “The 2010 Midterms And The 2016 Presidentials: The Lessons Not Learned”
The Normalization Of Donald Trump
Before the elections of 2016 we were informed at every step of the way that Donald Trump was a fascist, one to be stopped by any means necessary; we were urged to stop this greatest danger to the American republic ever by throwing our bodies into the breach, by manning the barricades, by storming them.Continue reading “The Normalization Of Donald Trump”
The 2016 Elections: Chronicles Of A Disaster Foretold
In October 2008, I went door-knocking in Wilkes-Barre, PA–for the Barack Obama campaign. (Earlier, I had donated a total of $100 to the Obama campaign, making two contributions of $50 each.) I was assigned a map of a neighborhood, along with names and addresses and an indicator of whether earlier in the election season, theContinue reading “The 2016 Elections: Chronicles Of A Disaster Foretold”
The 2016 Elections, The ‘Bernie Revolution,’ And A Familiar Pattern
In The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848 Eric Hobsbawm writes: In brief, the main shape of…all subsequent bourgeois revolutionary politics were by now clearly visible. This dramatic dialectical dance was to dominate the future generations. Time and again we shall see moderate middle class reformers mobilizing the masses against die-hard resistance or counter-revolution. We shall see the masses pushingContinue reading “The 2016 Elections, The ‘Bernie Revolution,’ And A Familiar Pattern”
Samir Chopra 